I will take less profit in a hotter area that sells faster than gambling on a small town/slow area with "potential" for higher profits.  

I don’t know the person, but I would think you could afford to gamble $525.

However, we were basically gambling on every transaction at this point in our career.

Better to accept today's rates over waiting and gambling on lower rates in 2023. 

Short term rental is always a larger gamble with more headaches than a long term rental.

Good luck on your adventure!

I am also a professional landlord and would be willing to work out a plan to assist you with the management portion of your adventure as well!

@Steve Vaughan  agreed very slippery slope... we all hear about Hewlit and Packard starting in a garage with 15k of credit cards in the early days... and well look where they ended up.. so who knows.. but it sure is a gamble.

IMHO,  whats important is to walk the property, otherwise, you are taking a vegas gamble with not being able to see the inside. 

But that is where groups like Adventures in CRE or a finance grad student come into play.